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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22678270">Learning Curve</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanadka/pseuds/kanadka'>kanadka</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Babylon 5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alien Rituals, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 18:49:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>535</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22678270</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanadka/pseuds/kanadka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An alien ritual for Delenn, an alien ritual for John.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Delenn/John Sheridan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Chocolate Box - Round 5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Learning Curve</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/SammyFlower/gifts">SammyFlower</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It is as they are up late one night—Delenn is reading Interstellar Alliance minutiae, less important to read and even less important to describe, John is reading today's (now yesterday's) newspaper, which he has balanced across on her ankles, her feet in his lap—that John peels his orange, sections it, removes the pith, and wordlessly hands her a slice.</p><p>She takes it without realising and he is two slices in before she even <em>sees</em>.</p><p>To peel fruit and offer it, wordlessly, as tribute to your love. To feed them with your effort, your labour. To think nothing of it.</p><p>He continues to read. He peels another section off, and holds it out for her. The second he places in his mouth and grins to himself.</p><p>Actually, oranges still have a slightly bitter flavour to her. It's the Minbari tastebuds she never fully relinquished in the transition, she suspects. She eats it anyway, and the sharp burst of juice hurts in a colourful ecstasy.</p><p>These are some of John's love languages, and Delenn is always listening.</p><p>In return, Minbari have their own smattering of traditions. The time spent in prayer is sacred; some meditations are not intended to be done in pairs, like the rituals of huran'mak. These are intended to build the family, by building and centering oneself.</p><p>Now, meditation has never helped John in the same way as it helps Delenn, and though he has come a very long way since the time he fell asleep and began to snore, he will never quite be Religious Caste. (A moment of honesty: she does not want him to be. She <em>likes</em> that he is human. She <em>likes</em> that he is different.) So he does not accomplish these rituals himself. That is probably for the best: so deep a meditation has the feeling of losing oneself. One must be careful, one must have training.</p><p>There is an old fear with Delenn: that one of the reasons her mother left is because a deep meditation like the rituals of huran'mak showed her her true path. The one that <em>didn't</em> lie with her family; the one that lay with the exclusion of temple. Maybe the Religious Caste is somewhat mistaken, and maybe it is possible to meditate too much, to be too alone with the night... Delenn too has her moments of loss of faith, of questioning... It feels like straying too close to the edge of an abyss, and looking over at its depths. <em>Yes</em>, she hears the voice of her old meditations Sech, <em>that's the idea. Lean into that feeling</em>.</p><p>But as Delenn pulls herself out of the trance next to him, John is there. In fact, he has always been here. While her self-awareness had pulled her so strongly inside, he sat with her, close enough to feel his warmth, and she had not been alone.</p><p>"Thanks," he says. "I don't know what that does, when you do ... that. But I think it helps. Even if every time you come out of it, you seem a little disturbed."</p><p>"Every time," replies Delenn. "I learn." She places a hand on his cheek.</p><p>He leans towards her until their foreheads touch. "<em>We</em> learn," he agrees.</p>
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